Vikings vs. 49ers: NFL Preseason Odds & Prediction: August 22nd 2010

Hopeful eyes will be honed in on the Minnesota sideline when it takes on San Francisco in NBC’s Sunday night telecast waiting to see if good ‘ol #4 will lace ‘em up and take a few reps against the 49ers first team defense. If so, I’m betting his efforts won’t be enough to allow the Vikings to cash tickets on the football money line as underdogs in this contest.
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Minnesota Vikings vs. San Francisco 49ers
Game Date/Time: Sunday, August 22nd, 8:00 ET
Game Location: Monster Park, San Francisco, CA
TV/Radio Broadcast: NBC, Sirius

NFL Odds: Minnesota Vikings (+3) -110 vs. San Francisco 49ers (-3) -110: Over/Under: 35

Though the Vikings pasted the Rams in their first exhibition game of the preseason, all the news is currently centered around Brett Favre and how he finally decided to make one last go of it to capture the Vikings franchise first ever Super Bowl victory.

Regardless of whether he’ll get any game action in this spot, the Vikings will very much want to build off of their solid football money line victory against St. Louis. They went off the board as 2.5-point underdogs, but made the oddsmakers look foolish after they trounced the Rams 28-7 to easily cash NFL bettor’s money line tickets.

While Tarvaris Jackson did nothing to impress, the same can’t be said of Sage Rosenfels who lit the Rams defense up to the tune of 310 yards passing and three TDs. Defensively, the Vikings looked to be in mid season form as well giving up 150 combined yards and allowing St. Louis to convert just 3-of-14 third down tries.

When taking a gander at the box score from last week’s game at Indianapolis, the 37-17 final would lead you to believe that Head Coach Mike Singletary’s squad dominated from the onset.

That was far from the case however, as it wasn’t until Peyton Manning and the rest of the first teamers departed with a 10-0 lead that San Francisco caught fire. That will not have sat well with the firey Singletary who will most definitely expect more from his team in this spot.

Since taking over the Niners reins, the former Chicago Bears linebacker has won four of the five games he’s coached in the preseason against the football betting line. Though his club failed to cover the spread, San Fran is a perfect 2-0 SU in both home games during that stretch.

NFL Insider Tip: Now that the Vikings have their lynchpin back in place, I don’t foresee them doing much of anything to compete throughout the remainder of the exhibition season – And why would they? They were an overtime loss away from going to the Super Bowl a year ago, and a bulk of the pieces from that squad are still in place.

There really just isn’t much to be decided right now. Favre has let it be known that this will be his swan song of a season, so why would Head Coach Brad Childress want to put any of his major contributors in harms way when the games simply don’t count.

On the flipside, the Niners are expected to walk away with the NFC West Title for the first time in years. Singletary is a coach that above all wants to win, and I firmly believe he’ll have his men ready to trounce these guys this evening. It also doesn’t hurt that it would maybe take some of the sting of that brutal Week 3 loss they suffered in the Dome last season. Not much, but maybe a little…

Look for the Niners to at the very least cover the football money line in this contest!

My NFL Preseason Predictions: San Francisco 49ers -165

Source: BetUS Locker Room Featured on: Handicapperspicks.com

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3. NFL Preseason Week 2 Underdog Parlay Picks: August 20th 2010